


Goggles

by K (Thiswasmydesign)



Series: Wammy's House Series [6]
Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga), Death Note: Another Note
Genre: Backup's not always awful, Fluff, Gen, Matt's goggles, Meares-Irlen Syndrome, Wammy House, Wammy's Era, aka visual stress, drabble / short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 06:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14326293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thiswasmydesign/pseuds/K
Summary: Another short story from the children growing up at Wammy's house.Matt wears goggles with amber glass in them, but why?Also features; Backup (Beyond) not being awful for a change and the arrival of Linda at Wammy's house.





	Goggles

**Author's Note:**

> This one wasn't prompted, I just had the idea and thought it was sweet.

Matt had always been overlooked. Amongst the Wammy’s kids, the modesty in academic achievements gave him the unique position of keeping quiet and causing little bother in the house. He was nice to everyone, and in contrast to the hugely outgoing Mello and the quiet Near he was relatively normal.

Because of this it was easy for Matt to be overlooked, and most of the time the other children did just that.

He was always there when Mello got into bother, but it was always clear who was the ringleader and he rarely got into any sort of trouble. He would spend time when Mello was being penalised for whatever silly plan he had made playing on his games, and as the years went by he spent more and more time on his games as Mello got into more trouble.

His headaches were crippling, and he had to go to Wammy in the end to seek some sort of help, after failing to fix them himself. He was taken to an eye specialist, and a diagnosis of Meares-Irlen Syndrome was made. Matt liked to use the proper term if he had to tell anyone about it; he preferred it to calling it visual stress, which he thought made him sound weak.

He was sent to a clinic soon after and they gave him some sheets of plastic to lay over whatever he was reading or for his games, testing him and finding that amber was the best colour to filter out the source of his visual strain. Matt threw them away immediately. He didn’t want something that would make him stick out like that, that would show everyone his weakness so obviously.

Wammy had told him off, but the inventor was sympathetic, and so one morning Matt woke up to find an array of different options by his bedside, ranging from unobtrusive glasses to very obvious goggles.

He wore the glasses the first day, but as soon as Mello found the selection he was dressed up by his friend to match the goggles, and although he knew they made him look strange no one passed comment.

He was just Matt, and Matt with goggles was as easily overlooked as Matt without goggles. Even Backup didn’t bully him for them, didn’t even seem to notice the difference.

Until a new child came to the orphanage, and Matt was the one nominated to show her around.

“Why do you wear those?” She asked in her innocent way, her little hand caught in Matt’s larger one as he encouraged her in to the dining room with the others for breakfast.

“Well,” he considered a reason that would be reassuring for the timid, shy girl who was almost hiding behind him as they passed a glaring Backup. “They shoot laser beams at bullies.”

“They do?” she gawped at him. “Can I see?”

“I’m afraid not,” Matt smiled at her conspiratorially. “You see, I don’t want to set the room on fire before you can get your breakfast. Look, it’s pancakes. A special treat for a special new girl.”

“I don’t believe you,” the little girl pulled her hand out of his and crossed her arms, pouting.

A larger hand tapped the little girl on the shoulder, and she turned around only to squeak and run to hide behind Matt. Backup loomed closer, a vicious tooth baring snarl twisting his face.

“Hello little girl,” Backup’s voice was hardly his own, higher pitched and unnerving. “What’s your name?”

“L…L… Linda,” she stammered, grasping the back of Matt’s T-shirt for some form of comfort.

“Leave her alone, Backup,” Matt warned, wary. He had never had to take on Backup before, never been bullied by him. He wasn’t direct competition for the title of L, having made it clear that he didn’t want it anyway, so Backup usually just let him be.

“Or what?” Backup sneered at him.

“Or he’ll shoot lasers at you!” Linda squeaked from behind him, and for a moment Matt was sure his heart stopped.

“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Backup laughed, looking round to A behind him who was looking worried, tugging at his arm. A slowly let go, allowing Backup to advance, getting right in Matt’s face, nose to nose. “Just try it, goggles boy.”

Matt wasn’t sure what he should do. He had no lasers, the goggles were nothing but a sensory aid. What would happen when he failed to chase Backup away? Would he hurt Linda, or just threaten her? If he lashed out at Backup physically, he would take a beating, he knew this, but maybe that would be better to redirect Backup away from the new girl and give her chance to get away.

If only the others would help, would pull Backup away, but Mello was grounded for some prank he had pulled and would be eating breakfast in his room. Near was probably with him, and Matt would usually be except that he had Linda to look after. But the other children didn’t step in, too afraid of Backup to get in his way.

Matt bent his leg, just a little, wondering if he could kick Backup in just the right spot between his legs to give both of them a chance to run away.

Close to Matt’s face, Backup suddenly winked.

Matt’s eyes widened as he stared. Did he just…

“Do your worst,” Backup taunted, and winked again, deliberately and obviously, but too close to Matt’s face for anyone else to see.

“Don’t make me blind you,” Matt warned, deciding to take the risk and play along, lifting a hand to the side of his goggles as if about to push a button.

“Can’t do it, can ya?” Backup laughed, so Matt pretended to push the button, throwing up his other hand holding the edge of his jacket so that it was covering the gap between his and Backup’s faces from view from anyone else in the room. His heart skipped a beat as he waited to see what Backup would do.

Backup screamed, reeling backwards, eyes shut tightly closed until his hands came up to rub at them, staggering back until he hit one of the benches and sitting down rather than completely falling. He covered his eyes with his fingers, parting the ones on Matt’s side of the room to open that eye and glance pointedly to Linda before closing it again. Matt gawped at the performance Backup put on, screaming and shouting about how it burned, how he couldn’t see and the world was all white now.

Matt turned to Linda, who was staring at him like he was some sort of God.

“You really did it,” she began to laugh, excited and relieved. “Can I see them?”

“These are a very dangerous weapon,” Matt warned her, removing his goggles and handing them to her. “You have to promise to be very careful?”

“I will,” she promised, and he handed them to her. “How do they work?”

“If I show you the button, you have to promise me you’ll never, ever push it unless you have to?” Matt made her promise and then pinky swear. “Okay, it’s here look… tell you what, why don’t you keep this pair? I have more.”

“Yes please!” Linda beamed at him and he helped her to put the goggles on. “Why are they yellow?”

“Amber, to protect you from the laser,” Matt lied. “When you’re wearing them you can’t see the laser beam at all.”

“Okay,” Linda pulled them down over her eyes and back up to her forehead. She looked back to Backup, who was making a show of being guided across the room by A, his arms outstretched in front of him and ‘accidentally’ hitting a few of the other children in the face as he groped around blindly, eyes tightly closed.

“The laser wears off after a few hours,” Matt told her to explain why Backup would soon recover. “But I don’t think he’ll give you any more trouble.”

Linda nodded, still beaming at him.

“Let’s get you some breakfast before it goes cold, huh?” he took her hand, leading her to the pancake stacks.

Linda settled in to the house quickly, and she didn’t remove the goggles for two years, even after she had proven that they didn’t shoot laser beams a few weeks after she arrived.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos really keep me motivated to write, and tell me that you're interested. Please, if you can spare a moment, hit that kudos button and if you're especially generous, let me know what you think, or even what you would like to see happen. Inspiration can come in many forms!


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